Can’t hardly wait

Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre 16 November 2005 page 6

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Directed by Mike Newell
Written by Steven Kloves
Based on the novel by J.K. Rowling
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes
GP / 147 minutes
Warner Brothers Pictures
Opens Nov 16

Dark times haunt Harry Potter at Hogwarts this year as he battles fiery dragons, terrible Death Eaters and… puppy love? Horror and hormones abound in the fourth incantation of the Potter series, the most elaborate so far.

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is buffeted by nightmares about the dark Lord Voldemort on the night he joins Hermione (Emma Watson), Ron (Rupert Grint) and the rest of the Weasleys before their trip to the Quidditch World Cup. Even before the event would reach its climax, Death Eaters appear and terrify the campsite, presumably in search of something or someone in the crowd. Harry survives the attack and gets a glimpse of the perpetrators, which he reports to the authorities.

A quick train trip the next day and they’re back in Hogwarts, where headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) explains that Hogwarts is the year’s host to the Triwizard Tournament, a sort of quiz bee meets fear factor for wizards. The Goblet of Fire chooses Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson) to represent Hogwarts, Fleur Delacour for the visiting French Beauxbatons, and Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian superstar seeker from Durmstrang.

To everyone’s surprise, including Harry’s, the goblet churns out Harry’s name as a fourth Triwizard champion, throwing the entire school into commotion. Ron resents the turn of events, suspecting that Harry cheated on being chosen. Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, takes care of the rejected Harry.

Meanwhile, in the annual Yule Ball, everyone is expected to get a dance partner, including the visiting champions. Harry has his eyes on Cho Chang (Katie Leung), who instead goes with Cedric. Ron finds difficulty asking a girl out, visibly irking Hermione, who decides to go with Viktor. Harry and Ron end up taking the Indian Patil twins to the ball, even if none of them enjoyed it.

In the first task of the Triwizard, each of the champions outwits a dragon to retrieve a golden egg; in the second they better the mermaids in swimming to save their friends under the lake. The third and final task is the deadliest, when they try to survive a maze of devouring shrubs. Harry and Cedric literally fight for the trophy towards the end, but the trophy transports the two to an unknown graveyard, which Harry recognizes as part of his nightmares.

The graveyard yields Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), resurrected into near full physical form by his servant Wormtail (Timothy Spall). Once again Voldemort and Harry confront each other face to face and the confrontation claims the life of… somebody. Everything is changing in Harry Potter’s world.

A year after Alfonso Cuaron’s successful Prisoner of Azkaban, Mike Newell directs a darker Goblet of Fire, foreboding death and violence in many of its scenes, particularly with the Triwizard tournament and the Death Eaters. A word of warning – this isn’t the same Potter movie like years before.

Newell puts some level of “real worldness” to Goblet – the Death Eaters are as much terrorists as hooligans gone berserk in a football match. For once Hogwarts feels like a real school, where kids bully and bicker, and the boys try to charm the girls – the Weasley twins get their own show. Dumbledore even gets more screen time, a proper preparation for his roles in the next Potter installments. More importantly, Harry, Hermione and Ron act their age. Hogwarts meets bagets.

A lot of things are also gone in Goblet – no Dursleys nor giant spiders or any house elf, Dobby included. The changes are welcome, considering the scope of Goblet the novel. However, the movie likewise crams as many details as it can (therefore the lengthy summary of this review). At two and a half hours, Goblet attempts to cover the usual Potter mystery elements, new characters, a budding love triangle, Voldemort’s resurging menace, everyday Hogwarts studies, the Triwizard tournament, etc one can almost scream, “I survived Goblet of Fire.” The movie suffers from the same malady that Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets shared – cramming as many elements it can take from the novel, although Goblet makes necessary improvements in the adaptation, something neither Sorcerer’s Stone nor Chamber of Secrets did.

From start to end, Goblet takes a serious tone, maybe a tad too serious for small fans of the books, though the book is decidedly darker still. But overall, no matter how excellently executed it is, Goblet suffers from its sheer weight. With too much going on, and three more movies to wait for, kids may choose to remember only a few things in the series, or adults may simply start caring less. Can’t hardly wait for the ending sounds like an option rather than anticipation. After all, wizards and muggles grow up just the same.

Off course

Review by Vives Anunciacion

Flightplan
Directed by Robert Schwentke
Written by Peter Dowling, Billy Ray
Starring Jodie Foster, Sean Bean, Peter Sarsgaard
PG 13 / 93 minutes
Buena Vista International/ Columbia Pictures
Opens November 9

A Jodie Foster movie is a required viewing simply because she’s in it. As Sommersby director John Amiel put it, “if God had designed a perfect acting machine, it would be pretty close to Jodie.” Flightplan may not be a top-notch thriller, but Foster’s performance in it is first-class, as usual.

Flightplan carries the story of jet propulsion engineer Kyle Pratt (Foster), who is flying from Berlin with her daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) to bury her late husband in New York. Midway through her trans-Atlantic flight, Julia disappears without a trace. Kyle’s fears mount as she makes a frantic search for her lost six-year-old child.

Insisting that something wrong has happened to Julia, Kyle manages to ask flight Captain Rich (squarely played by Sean Bean) to instruct the entire crew to search the plane. But no one else remembers seeing Julia being on board. Without a name in the flight manifest and without a boarding pass to prove Julia was ever on board, everyone begins to suspect that Kyle is having a delusional nervous breakdown. To calm her down, air marshall Carson (Peter Sarsgaard, recently in Skeleton Key) offers his help to look for whatever it is Kyle is really looking for.

But her smarts and her maternal instincts know better. The more Kyle looks for her daughter, the more she is convinced that something devious is responsible for the disappearance of her child, that Julia is somewhere in the plane, and more importantly, that she is not losing her mind.

Set almost entirely inside a passenger plane (as was Wes Craven’s thriller Red Eye shown a few months back), Flightplan is a combination of David Fincher’s Panic Room (which also starred Foster) and suspense master Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938). Flightplan is a well-crafted thriller that delivers the excitement, if only for a few weaknesses in the plot.

That an entire passenger plane manages to miss one small child, without anyone seeing her, is a little farfetched. Why an airplane engineer such as Kyle Pratt was considered a proper alibi for the real terror besieging the plane is a huge risk and miscalculation on the part of the criminals. However, the movie manages to suspend the viewer’s disbelief with perfect-pitch acting, cleverly set-up characters, and suspenseful timing.

Flightplan’s plot rests on how Kyle can convince an entire airplane full of people that her missing child is real, despite looking having all the facts pointing against her and her sanity. Foster was so convincing as a mother in the cusp of a nervous breakdown, it wouldn’t have been surprising had the story ended with a “delusional” angle.

Thankfully for the actors of Flightplan, they add to the believability of the story where the plot takes terrible turns.

Flightplan may not have a foolproof premise, and it may not reach the levels of classic thrillers – but proficient directing, sharp editing and intelligent acting keep the shaky story above the clouds. Fasten your seatbelts, Flightplan is a thrilling ride.

Screaming pagod

Review by Vives Anunciacion

Ispiritista: Itay, may moomoo!
Directed by Tony. Y. Reyes
Written by RJ Nuevas, Tony Y. Reyes, Antonio Tuviera, Nino T. Rodriguez
Starring Vic Sotto, BJ Forbes
GP / 105minutes
Regal Entertainment, APT Entertainment

There’s so much noise from all the screaming and shouting in Ispiritista, it should be enough to scare audiences away from the hammy horror comedy. Alas, it’s making money at the tills. Apparently, what’s keeping the local movie industry alive is the same reason that’s killing it. Formula.

Vic Sotto plays Victor Espiritu (how inspired), a sulking widower and lonely father to Tom Tom (BJ Forbes.) By day Victor pretends to be a spirit medium (ispiritista), conning people who have problems with the paranormal. But it is Tom Tom who can commune with the departed, it takes a while for Victor to understand the situation.

For the most part, Ispiritista is a collection of Victor’s slapstick antics as a quack medium and chick magnet, aided by two sidekicks Jose (Manalo) and Wally (Bayola). The remaining one-fourth of the movie is split between Tom Tom’s ghost sightings in school, and a very nasty haunted house that starts and ends the movie. The movie is populated by Eat Bulaga! mainstays.

Ispiritista is reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners (1996), but since the original Ghost Busters (1984) there have been numerous ghost buster adaptations and spoofs in local and foreign movies. Ispiritista’s storyline is dated, as if it was made in the 80’s. Even the performances are overused, not since the Tito, Vic, and Joey days have a movie had so much slapping and hysteria. Wally gets hit in the face many times, at the back of the head several times, and at one point, is hit on his bald forehead by a pair of small pliers. So much for physical comedy.

From start to finish, everyone practically screams. There’s a ghost – scream. Another ghost, flail hands in air – scream. A slap in the face – scream. It’s the movie with the hammiest acting in the world, almost, BJ Forbes has a natural knack for acting.

These are superficial encounters compared to what really ails Ispiritista. Sotto’s character, Victor, is a self-centered, spineless dickhead who risks his own son’s life at the haunted house so he can help the aunt of his love (lust?) interest (played by Cindy Kurleto). Victor is portrayed as a stud chick magnet who gets catcalls even from ghosts (though off-screen, Bossing somewhat projects the same image.) Victor dates sexy girls while he is moping over the death of his wife (played by Iza Calzado).

Victor ignores Tom Tom most of the time, and when he finally does, lets Tom Tom do the job he can’t do himself. In the end, Victor doesn’t save the day, the ghosts do that themselves. Victor doesn’t go to jail, and instead is rewarded for his simple supplication. Victor is overwhelmingly forgiven by the people (and the ghosts) he offended and gets the girl.

The disturbing part is the accepted practice to reward a mediocre life (or a mediocre movie) – is it really culturally ingrained in Pinoys to blankly forgive offenders no matter what the offense? It’s one thing to forgive an offender, it’s another to pretend as if nothing has happened at all. Now that’s worth screaming at.

Eating the artist, starving the art

Review by Vives Anunciacion

Ilusyon
Direction, Editing and Animation by Ellen Ramos and Paolo Villaluna
Written by Jon Red and Paolo Villaluna
Starring Yul Servo, JC Parker
R18/ 117 minutes
Digital Viva
Adult content and themes

Hunger pangs of different sorts illustrate the struggling painter’s desires in this adult period drama about passions and palettes.

Ilusyon stars Yul Servo as provincianic Miguel. He visits his starving artist of a father Pablo (played by digital movie favorite Ronnie Lazaro) at his humble home in Manila only to discover that Pablo has ventured on his own soul searching following the death of his wife and Miguel’s mother. Miguel stays in Manila and takes a painter’s job – house painting that is.

Miguel meets Stella (JC Parker) one humid day in 1958. Stella is a nude model scheduled for a painting session with Miguel’s father. Instantly infatuated with the lady in red, Miguel assumes his father’s identity and pretends to be a portrait artist. Meanwhile, Stella develops deeper feelings for Miguel, who hides his chicken scratch from Stella however he can.

When Stella develops a skin disease, their attractions begin to fade. Miguel the inexperienced artist begins to lose his intense feelings with his muse, while the cold shoulder turns Stella away from the moody “artist”. Eventually Stella discovers Miguel’s true identity and the breakup becomes final. But Stella has more reasons to flee from Miguel, and she vanishes without a trace.
Miguel tries to look for Stella, and when he does, he doesn’t. Let’s say the movie enjoys double-meanings.

Ilusyon is the first movie to get an “A” from the Cinema Evaluation Board since La Visa Loca and Santa Santita and only the first digital and the first R-rated feature to receive the said rating. Ilusyon actually deserves the merit.

While it doesn’t have the ingredients of a mass-market Pinoy film Ilusyon offers a few new approaches worthy to be seen by most viewers. Let’s just say the movie has no intents to entertain in the usual sense.

Decidedly stylized and obsessively designed (almost screaming 1958), Ilusyon has very warm tones and textures reminiscent of 60s and 70s movies, with visual reminders of Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love and Taymor’s Frida. Music varies from fiery strings to canned songs, sometimes the scenes feel unnatural and overwrought, sometimes incredibly depressing. The movie could have been shorter too. As with recent Viva releases there are mandatory love scenes, Ilusyon however successfully makes these tasteful. Performances are generally acceptable, with Anita Linda’s cameo as the most intense short performance in recent years.

Ilusyon’s triumph comes from its earnest portrayal of an artist as a lover and a son. There are few Pinoy movies that present an artist’s temperament, let alone his angst and frustrations. Ilusyon illustrates these and more. Ilusyon’s other side paints a dull culture unappreciative of artists and disrespectful of the arts.